![](https://i1.wp.com/imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Shoreline_Certifications-Some_Interesting_Issues-1-1024x591.jpg?ssl=1)
Shoreline Certifications – Some Interesting Issues
![](https://i1.wp.com/imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Shoreline_Certifications-Some_Interesting_Issues-1-1024x591.jpg?ssl=1)
by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
“Hamohamo is justly considered to be the most life-giving and healthy district in the whole extent of the island of Oʻahu; there is something unexplainable and peculiar in the atmosphere of that place, which seldom fails to bring back the glow of health to the patient, no matter from what disease suffering.” (Queen Liliʻuokalani)
The Queen “derived much amusement, as well as pleasure: for as the sun shines on the evil and the good, and the rain falls on the just and the unjust, I have not felt called upon to limit the enjoyment of my beach and shade-trees to any party in politics … While in exile it has ever been a pleasant thought to me that my people, in spite of differences of opinions, are enjoying together the free use of my seashore home.”
Because of her nearby homes, they called the coastal area in this part of Waikīkī Queen’s Surf Beach.
In 1914, Mr & Mrs WK Seering of the International Harvester Co in Illinois built a home there. A couple decades later, Fleischman’s Yeast heir, Mr CR Holmes, bought the home (he also had other Hawaiʻi property, including Coconut Island in Kāneʻohe Bay.) (ilind)
During WWII, the house was used for military retreats and other military uses. Admiral Nimitz, General Douglas McArthur and staffs spent time there.
After World War II (and following Holmes’ death,) the City & County of Honolulu bought the property and leased it to the Spencecliff Corporation restaurant chain; it became their flagship property and operated it as the hugely popular Queen’s Surf Restaurant and Nightclub.
Sterling Edwin Kilohana Mossman (February 3, 1920 to February 21, 1986) headlined at its upstairs Barefoot Bar. A man as versatile as he was talented, literally led a double life. A detective with the Honolulu Police Department during the day, after dark he was one of Hawaiʻi’s most popular entertainers. His diversified careers earned him the nickname “Hula Cop”. (TerritorialAirwaves)
The Barefoot Bar was ground zero for this new brand of local comedy. Mossman was the ringleader, along with the likes of Lucky Luck, a zany radio personality, and Kent Bowman, known as KK Kaumanua. They told stories, sang songs and, when a celebrity from the Mainland happened to come by (and they did a lot), they became part of the show. (HonoluluMagazine)
Mossman sang and did comedy and included a lot of others in the evening’s entertainment. The footprints of many of these Island and internationally known entertainers lined the stairway up to the second floor bar.
For a while, downstairs, at the Surf Lanai, Kuiokalani (Kui) Lee sang for the crowds – inside and out of the restaurant. During the day, the beach was crowded with sun bathers; at night it was full of Island residents listening in on Kui Lee’s long list of local favorites (he’d turn to the ocean and sing a final song to the folks on the beach.)
Born in Shanghai, China, the third child and only son of Hawaiian entertainers Billy and Ethel Lee, Kui Lee was a prolific songwriter. Folks like Don Ho, Elvis, Tony Bennett and Andy Williams recorded and performed his songs: “I’ll Remember You,” “One Paddle, Two Paddle”, “She’s Gone Again”, “No Other Song”, “If I Had To Do It All Over Again”, “Yes, It’s You”, “Rain, Rain Go Away”, “Get On Home”, “The Days Of My Youth” and “Lahainaluna.”
“Kui was very brash, very positive about his songs,” said Kimo McVay, owner of Duke Kahanamoku’s nightclub from 1961 to ’71 and manager/promoter of Don Ho from 1963 to ’66. “He gave them to Don, and Don, of course, made them hits. When Don became a star because of that material, a national star, that’s what launched Kui. And Kui became the star of Queen’s Surf.” (star-bulletin)
Here is Kui Lee singing Days of My Youth (a reminder for me of growing up in the Islands, and the one time I was able to sit on the beach and listen to Kui Lee perform – unfortunately, Kui Lee died of cancer at the age of 34 in 1966.) Click HERE for a YouTube for one of Kui Lee’s songs.
Queen’s surf also offered a regular lūʻau on the property.
The stories vary on the cause, but later there was a lease dispute with the City and the Queen’s Surf and the neighboring Kodak Hula Show were evicted, the Queen’s Surf was torn down (1971) and the Waikīkī beachfront area was turned into a public park.
by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
The plaque inscription states, “Found by the salvage ship ‘USS Beaufort ATS-2’ in July 1972 off Lahaina, Maui. This anchor is believed to have been made around 1850 and used by one of the whaling ships of that era. Presented to the men of the Kilauea Military Camp by the officers and crew of USS Beaufort ATS-2”
The anchor was a gift, so it is appropriate wherever it is; likewise, the gift of a whaling anchor found off Lahaina (at a location 4,000-feet above the ocean) helps tell some of the stories of Hawai‘i’s military and economy – I think questioning why it’s there and looking into it a bit is helpful, and not something necessarily out of place.
The USS Beaufort (named for Beaufort, South Carolina) was the Navy’s largest and most capable submarine rescue and deep-ocean search-and-recovery ship. She was built in the late-1960s and commissioned on January 22, 1972 and spent most of her service in the Western Pacific. She was decommissioned on March 8, 1996.
Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 when two New England ships became the first whaling ships to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands. At that time, whale products were in high demand; whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.
Whalers’ aversion to the traditional Hawaiian diet of fish and poi spurred new trends in farming and ranching. The sailors wanted fresh vegetables and the native Hawaiians turned the temperate uplands into vast truck farms.
There was a demand for fresh fruit, cattle, white potatoes and sugar. Hawaiians began growing a wider variety of crops to supply the ships.
In Hawaiʻi, several hundred whaling ships might call in season, each with 20 to 30 men aboard and each desiring to resupply with enough food for another tour “on Japan,” “on the Northwest,” or into the Arctic.
The whaling industry was the mainstay of the island economy for about 40 years. For Hawaiian ports, the whaling fleet was the crux of the economy. More than 100 ships stopped in Hawaiian ports in 1824.
“At present the whale ships visit the Sandwich Islands in the months of March and April and then proceed to the coast of Japan, the return again in October and November remain here about six weeks, and then proceed in different directions …”
“… some to the Coast of California, others cruise about the Equator when they return thither again in March and April and proceed a second time to the Coast of Japan; it usually occupies two seasons on that coast to fill a ship that will carry Three Hundred Tons.” (Jones report to Henry Clay, Secretary of State, 1827)
“The number of hands generally comprising the Company of a whale ship will average Twenty Five; and owing to the want of discipline, the length and the ardourous duties of the voyage, these people generally become dissatisfied and are willing at any moment to join a rebellion or desert the first opportunity) that may offer …”
“… this has been fully exemplified in the whale ships that have visited these islands, constant disertions have taken place and many serious mutinies both contributing to protract and frequently ruin the voyage.” (Jones report to Henry Clay, Secretary of State, 1827)
The effect on Hawaiʻi’s economy, particularly in areas in reach of Honolulu, Lāhainā and Hilo, the main whaling ports, was dramatic and of considerable importance in the islands’ history. Over the next two decades, the Pacific whaling fleet nearly quadrupled in size and in the record year of 1846, 736-whaling ships arrived in Hawai‘i.
Then, whaling came swiftly to an end. In 1859, oil was discovered and a well was developed in Titusville, Pennsylvania; within a few years this new type of oil replaced whale oil for lamps and many other uses – spelling the end of the whaling industry.
At volcano … in 1898, Lorrin Thurston owner of Volcano House and head of the Hawai‘i Promotion Committee (forerunner to the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau) worked closely with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company to create an excursion business from Honolulu to his hotel at Kīlauea.
Although he sold his interest in Volcano House to hotelier George Lycurgus (1858–1960) in 1904, Thurston continued to promote Kīlauea and Hawai‘i’s other natural sites.
He helped with the establishment of the Hawaiʻi National Park, an entity to encompass both Kīlauea and Haleakalā. Hawai‘i’s new National Park, established August 1, 1916, was the thirteenth in the new system and the first in a US territory. (Chapman)
The history of the Park generally mirrors the history of Kīlauea Military Camp (KMC.) Interest in Kīlauea as a military training and rest area began in September 1911, when Companies A and F, Twentieth Infantry, arrived. They were followed two years later by one hundred men from Company D, First Infantry, who camped near the Volcano House. (Nakamura)
Thurston helped negotiate a lease for about 50-acres of land from Bishop Estate; trustees held the lease (they included Ex offico the Commander of the Army Department of Hawaii; Ex officio the Commanding General of the National Guard of Hawaii; Lieut Col John T. Moir, National Guard, Island of Hawaiʻi; GH Vicars of Hilo and LA Thurston of Honolulu and Hilo).
In the early years, to get there, off-island folks took steamer ships to either Hilo or Punaluʻu (from Hilo they caught a train to Glenwood and walked/rode horses to Volcano. From Ka‘ū, a five-mile railroad took passengers to Pahala and then coaches hauled the visitors to the volcano. Later, the roads opened.
The Kilauea Military Camp is located at an elevation of 4,000-feet, directly on the belt road around the island (the road was later relocated mauka of the Camp.)
KMC greeted its first group of US Army Soldiers from Company A, 2nd Infantry, November 6, 1916. Three buildings for dining and recreation were still unfinished, so the visiting Soldiers were expected to provide their own sleeping tents. A couple weeks later, November 17, KMC was officially opened, and many Soldiers came to this unique site.
Then, WWI broke out and virtually all of the troops in Hawai‘i had transferred to the continental US, many of them then moving on in succeeding months to the trenches of France and Belgium. (Chapman)
To keep the place going, school summer programs and Boy Scouts stayed at the camp. Following WWI, the trustees transferred their KSBE lease to the Park Service. By late-1921, soldiers on recreation leave started to return to the Camp and the facilities started to expand.
As part of the original agreement, the Navy built its own rest and recreation camp on a 14-acre parcel adjacent to KMC in 1926. The Navy camp was transferred to KMC’s control in 1935. (KMC)
On July 1, 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakalā National Park and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The relationship between the military and Park Service was not always smooth.
Today, Kīlauea Military Camp is open to all active and retired armed forces, Reserve/National Guard, dependents, other uniformed services, and current and retired Department of Defense civilians, including Coast Guard civilians and sponsored guests.
by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
Thomas Ervin Moffatt was born on December 30, 1930 in Detroit, Michigan. “I didn’t like the city, and I had relatives who lived outside of Detroit, so in my eighth grade, my folks let me work for this cousin of ours who had a mink ranch in a little town called Waterloo, Michigan. So I spent my eighth grade in this little town, in a one-room schoolhouse.”
After eight grade he “returned to Detroit to go to school.” But as Moffatt describes, “And again, I wasn’t too happy. I got a job washing dishes in a restaurant called Curly’s. And the people who owned it had a farm about forty miles outside of Detroit. And they took me out there one day, and I fell in love with it.”
“And so they needed somebody to work on the farm, so I talked to my folks, and they let me go into high school working on the farm.” At South Lyon High School, he “played football and basketball there, and … [got a scholarship] to play football for a very famous coach [George Allen] [and] played tackle.”
Not getting a clear answer to his questions about “If I get hurt in football, will my scholarship still be in effect? I couldn’t get a definite answer. So I decided to go to work for a while in a factory and earn enough money to go to college.” (Moffatt, PBS)
“One day, I’m in the corner drugstore in South Lyon, on my way to the tube company to work, and it was a steel mill. And I found this little book about colleges in the United States. The last page was University of Puerto Rico, and University of Hawaii. So I wanted to travel and go to school, and I got interested in University of Hawaii, and that’s how I ended up in Honolulu.”
“I wanted to be a lawyer. And in my first year, I had a speech teacher who said, You have a nice voice, you should get in the radio guild. … So I joined the radio guild, and got interested in being a radio announcer. So the end of my first year, I auditioned for KGU, and didn’t make it as a junior announcer.”
“I went back to school. And I’d go home every night and read the newspaper aloud, and talk, and read stories. Nobody was around, I’d just read every night aloud. So anyway, come the following June, I went back to KGU and got a job. I really got into it. I became a staff announcer at KGU. This was before disc jockeys really.”
“I remember being nervous the first time the microphone opened, and I had to say, This is KGU in Honolulu, high atop the Advertiser Building.” (Moffatt, PBS)
Shortly thereafter, he was drafted into the Army and “reported to Schofield for sixteen weeks of basic training. This was during the Korean War, and we were all being shipped off to Korea. So just when we concluded our basic training, this tough old sergeant called me in and said, Look, he said, you don’t want to go off to this war.”
“He just kinda said, Hey, you got a talent, and they need a radio announcer at Armed Forces Radio at Tripler Hospital. I’ll lend you my car. He gave me the keys, and I drove to Tripler Hospital. And since I’d had some training in commercial radio, they grabbed me up right away. So I spent the next two years defending my country at Tripler Hospital.”
“I stayed there for the rest of my Army career. And then I went back to KGU. And I started at KIKI also, so I was working at three radio stations, really. I’d do my … Army duty at Tripler and worked my eight hours, and then I’d work in the other stations. So I began my disc jockey career, really, at KIKI. It was kind of fun.” (Moffatt, PBS)
There were no music videos, no iTunes, it was just you and a disc jockey, the faceless voice spinning the hottest hits from artists like the Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Paul Revere & the Raiders. (PBS Hawaii)
“All of a sudden, I started listening to this music, and getting requests for a guy with a funny name. Elvis Presley. And I started playing his music. And that’s where it exploded. All of a sudden, every kid on the island was listening, and I was the only one playing in the islands, really, I was the only one playing rock and roll.” (Moffatt, PBS)
In 1957, Moffatt was approached by entrepreneurs Ralph Yempuku and Earl Finch with a deal too good to pass up. “They were looking to bring in some performers and wanted me to be their adviser.”
“They said if the show makes money, I’d make money; if it doesn’t make money, I wouldn’t lose anything. And I didn’t have to put up any money. That’s how I learned the business.” (Moffatt, Hawaii Business)
Moffat’s name is synonymous with entertainment in Hawai‘i. Tom Moffatt Productions produced live concerts, sporting events, ice shows, fundraisers, hotel and corporate parties and international attractions.
Though he will forever be known as the man who brought Elvis to Hawai‘i, it is his promotion of the state of Hawai‘i that has distinguished him from his peers. His productions have helped to put the state on the global map as a legitimate international entertainment venue, bringing superstars such as Michael Jackson, Elton John and the Rolling Stones.
In addition to his work in promoting Hawai‘i to the world, Moffatt has also been a dedicated supporter of local entertainers. From the Brothers Cazimero May Day concerts to the Brown Bags to Stardom talent contest, Moffatt has helped to nurture and promote homegrown talent. (UH)
When Hawai‘i became the 50th state in 1959, Honolulu’s fourth-oldest radio station, KHON, became KPOI. A crew of young broadcast vets known as the ‘Poi Boys’ came on and played the Top 40 hits mixed in with outrageous fun and games. The Poi Boys included ‘Uncle’ Tom Moffatt, Bob ‘The Beard’ Lowrie, ‘Jumpin’’ George West, Sam Sanford and ‘Whodaguy’ Ron Jacobs.
Moffatt received a Na Hoku Hanohano lifetime achievement award in 2002, was named by Honolulu magazine as among the 100 most influential people in Honolulu in 2005, was nominated to the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2009, and in 2014, the city proclaimed a “Tom Moffatt Day” in honor of the 50-year anniversary of his first show at the Blaisdell Center. (HNN) “Uncle Tom” died December 12, 2016.
by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
Sea Captain John Kendrick was born in 1740 in Cape Cod; he followed his father and went to sea by the time he was fourteen.
Kendrick fought in the French & Indian War in 1762. Like most Cape Codders of the time, he served for only eight months and did not re-enlist.
Family tradition holds that on the rainy night of December 16, 1773, John Kendrick had taken part in the Boston Tea Party band that boarded two East India Company ships at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston and dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor.
Kendrick later fought in the American Revolutionary War and commanded three different ships, the Fanny, Count D’Estaing and Marianne.
After the victorious Revolution, an economic depression had settled across the new nation.
The US needed to turn to trade to raise the necessary funding and shipping was a critical component of early commerce.
Kendrick and Robert Gray were selected to lead an expedition to establish new trade with China, settle an outpost on territory claimed by the Spanish and find the legendary Northwest Passage.
In September 1787, Kendrick in the Columbia and Gray in the Lady Washington, along with fifty other men – sailors and tradesmen alike – set sail from Boston.
They became the first citizens of the new nation to sail into the Pacific and lay eyes on the lush and resource-rich Northwest Coast of North America.
The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska. The furs were to be mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods that were sold in the US.
Trading ships crossing the Pacific needed to replenish food supplies and water; traders realized they could get these in Hawai‘i.
Within ten years after Captain Cook’s 1778 contact with Hawai‘i, the islands became a favorite port of call in the trade with China.
Kendrick provisioned in Hawai‘i a number of times and is also credited for initiating the sandalwood (‘iliahi) trade there (Hawai‘i’s first commercial export).
Sandalwood became a source of wealth in the islands, trade in Hawaiian sandalwood began as early as the 1790s; by 1805 it had become an important export item.
Unfortunately, the harvesting of the trees was not sustainably managed (they cut whatever they could, they didn’t replant) and over-harvesting of ‘iliahi took place. By 1830, the trade in sandalwood had completely collapsed.
On December 3, 1794, Kendrick returned to Fair Haven (Honolulu Harbor) Hawaiʻi aboard the Lady Washington; a war was waging between Kalanikupule and his half-brother Kaʻeokulani (Kaʻeo.)
Also in Honolulu were British Captain William Brown (the first credited with entering Honolulu Harbor) in general command of the Jackall and the Prince Lee Boo, Captain Gordon.
Kalanikupule sought and obtained assistance from Captain Brown. Brown furnished guns and ammunition, and, as Kaeo continued to advance, the mate of the Jackall, George Lamport, and eight sailors from the English ships volunteered to fight for the Oahu king.”
“In the final battle, between Kalauao and Aiea, the Englishmen were stationed in boats along the shore inside the eastern arm of what is now called Pearl Harbor. Kalanikupule gained a decisive victory and Kaeo was killed.” (Kuykendall)
On December 12, 1794, to celebrate the victory, Kendrick’s brig fired a thirteen-gun salute. (The tradition of rendering a salute by cannon originated in the 14th century as firearms and cannons came into use. Since these early devices contained only one projectile, discharging them rendered them harmless.)
Brown answered with a round of fire. Unfortunately, one of the saluting guns on Brown’s ship was loaded with shot, killing Kendrick.
“Kendrick was buried at the place where Captain Derby was interred in 1802 and Isaac Davis in 1810.” “[T]he chiefs designated a place for the burial of a foreigner in 1794 [so] it is likely that other foreigners who died in Honolulu would be interred in the same locations.” (Restarick)
On December 12, 2022, the Hawai‘i State Organization of the Daughters of the American Revolution installed a memorial plaque in honor of Captain John Kendrick. It was placed at a spot that would have been about the shoreline when Kendrick was killed.
Click the clinks below for a general summary that helps explain it – the file ending with ‘SAR–RT’ is a formatting used by the Sons of the American Revolution for presentations by its members under its Revolutionary Times program: